“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.”
Flannery O’Connor

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Munificent Mortality

“We are not now that strength which
in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we
are, we are, --

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but
strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not
to yield.”

Alfred Lord Tennyson

It is a sad time indeed. A gentle and learned man named
Father Harry Cook died a couple of days ago. He spent many years preaching as
an Episcopalian priest, and a Christian journalist not timid in his beliefs. He
was a social justice Giant and a down to earth man who spread the words of God
while professing he no longer believed in a deity. He believed in people, and
passion. He wrote from his heart, and never lied to make any point. He espoused
the teaching in John 8:32 that the truth will definitely set us all free.

A respectable part of my own view on what is just and
correct I learned from his readings. I was introduced to him from a friend,
another Episcopalian priest with a different demeanor from the norm, about ten
or eleven years ago. I am not or at least do not consider myself, a wise man. I
seek wisdom in order to make sense of the conflagration that the world is
enduring where it come to how we treat out fellow man. The world certainly
seems to be on fire and there are too few firemen.

Father Cook was one of the best.

I have not been reading his weekly essays for a while due to
a busy writing schedule of my own. I have saved them and will get to put them
into my daily prayer routine. Father Cook wondered about the efficacy of prayer
but my belief was that his words were as powerful as prayers and my belief in
them has yet to fail me. I believe Father Cook would not take umbrage with my
belief in prayer, as long as I continued to love my fellow man, and maintain a “give
your shirt and your coat” mentality in my heart and mind

I could go down the list of his readings and purport that I understand
all, but that would not be honest. I could speak of things I have learned but
it is probable that, given the reality of an age related poor memory, I would
confuse it all with other learned men I follow. As I said, I myself am not
wise. I am a guy that sometimes strings words together in a pleasing manner. Sometimes
the collections of words I use are not so pleasant. I write from a need to
communicate and to, perhaps someday, gain, and convey wisdom almost as well as
Father Cook. I reiterate…almost. I resist the idea that I could ever fit into
this giant’s shoes. The best I can do is extend you the last words he left us;

+ Love the English
language and use it with respect and care. None of us is Shakespeare redivivus.
Winston Churchill, H.L. Mencken and Graham Greene still stand alone with their
Firsts in English composition. They should be our standard.

+ A question -- and,
indeed, its formulation -- is likely to be more rewarding than straining to
produce a quick answer. Inquiry, research and hypotheses tend to invite more
thorough thoughtfulness -- a supreme value in human relationships at any level.
If you have never read the work of the late philosopher Richard Rorty and his
take on what he termed "contingency," now would be as good a time as
any to do so.

+ Beware the
politician who runs for office with an index finger pointed at those of an
identifiable nationality or ethnic group whilst blaming the woes of the nation
on them. Jews were long victims of such an evil, African Americans and Native
Americans, as well. Mexicans and Muslims in recent times became targets of such
calumny. Who needs a reprise of Nazism?

+ Resist the claims of
absolute truth made by those who march under various religious banners. No one
can possibly know what any possible deity wants or wills. Likewise, no one can
encompass the whole truth about anything.

+ Conserve Earth, her
atmosphere, her waterways and seas, her land, her creatures as good stewards
would estates entrusted to their care and protection. One can lick away on an
ice cream cone only so long before it disappears.

+ Help society
understand that punitive incarceration in and of itself is cruel and unusual
punishment. Justice is not served by putting people behind bars in violent
environments. In the same spirit, help society understand that capital
punishment is legalized murder, collective vengeance under the guise of doing
justice.

Give all you can to
encourage compassion for women who struggle to retain control of their own
bodies where unwanted or dangerous pregnancies are concerned. Tell the
anti-abortion zealots that, if they oppose the practice, they should take care
not to submit to it.

At least once a
year, listen to all six of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerti (BWV
1046-1051) and overture to Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (K.
492) as well as his Symphony No. 41, (K. 551), the Jupiter.
Each one of them is guaranteed to bestow upon the listener both joy and
profundity, mercifully tuning out the mindless cacophony that presses in on
every side.

+ Above all, follow
the wisdom offered by Hillel the Great more than two millennia ago: "What
you hate, do not do to another." The great sage must have known that such
behavior as a habit runs contrary to nature. Also he must have believed that
humankind could outdo nature. William Faulkner in his speech accepting the 1949
Nobel Prize in literature appeared to have shared Hillel's optimism: I believe that man will not merely endure:
he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an
inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion
and sacrifice and endurance. As a dear bishop friend was wont to
say, "May it be so."